


Truths Spoken Aloud

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: For Family [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, Emotional Hurt, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 02:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7387291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vader is evolving, neither monster nor the Hero, and he's uncertain of it. Meanwhile, Leia is given the chance to slake her curiosity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truths Spoken Aloud

It had been a hectic last several ten-days, with the Senate more resembling a crowded Outer Rim market on dropship day than the restored center of democracy and freedom in the Galaxy, and Ahsoka had been there almost nonstop, since Leia would not leave while they were in session. Ahsoka was getting tired of the multilingual screaming and accusations, so she was grateful when the newly-chosen senior Chancellor, a Caamasi elder from Kerilt, declared a two-day recess for everyone to recover their composure. 

It meant that she could get back to ~~Anakin~~ Vader and check on him, to see if he was okay. Once the speeder was back inside the hangar, and Leia was tucked into the inner suite with the Noghri, she stretched herself out to find him, and followed the pull of his presence. Vader had, mostly, been coordinating from his Tower, making him a little easier to find.

His influence with the ground troops had proved invaluable to the Alliance, as many Fleet ships had been taken almost bloodlessly by the Army turning on the Navy, and overpowering them. Several Moffs were still on the loose with their personal flagships and squadrons, but a surprising number of them had, once the revelations about the Emperor's engineering of the Clone Wars came out, declared for the New Republic.

Vader did not trust all of these capitulations by half, and spent as much time sorting through personnel rosters as he did commanding his people. 

The fact the suit was still in need of true replacement was one more reason for him to remain in his Tower, until he could make it back to the _Exactor_ where he had components he trusted not to have been sabotaged. 

Feeling Ahsoka's approach, though, he turned off his comm gear, settling back to learn how Leia was. He was still reluctant to let the young woman move back to her apartment, as there had been too many attempts on various figures of authority. If she were here, then that meant he could protect her better when Ahsoka was asleep.

That it was also keeping Ahsoka close to him was a benefit he refused to dwell on.

She slipped into the room with him, looking to the blank helmet with a slight tip of her head. "Hey," she said softly, "how's your day been? And Leia's just fine; the senior Chancellor must've finally gotten tired of all the screaming and told everyone to go home for the next two days. She may spend half of it on her comms, but... at least she's going to get some sleep." 

"Good." Vader tasted that honest curiosity, possibly concern, toward his well-being in the bond and did not understand. Why did Ahsoka continue to try and care? "I have secured two more fleets, both toward the Rimward worlds, but I believe they have seditious personnel aboard."

Which was not the answer she wanted, but how did he explain how he felt when he was still uncertain of the way his mind seemed so different now?

"I'm glad to hear the first part, at least," Ahsoka answered, though what she wanted to know was how _he_ was how he'd been since she'd been gone keeping his daughter safe, "and I guess the other's to be expected. It is worrying, though, given how much havoc a single capital ship can unleash. What makes you think so about these ships?" 

"Both ships were only recently restructured, with personnel chosen by Daala, on the authority of Tarkin, being reassigned there," Vader said. "Both of whom are at large and to be considered implacable foes to a new order."

He inspected the woman at his side, seeing all the bandages had come off, and her injuries were scarring over cleanly. He felt relief to notice that… which only added to the level of confusion he had concerning who he truly was now.

Ahsoka didn't bother trying to hide her growl, turning her head away from him rather than glare in his direction, and nearly spit at the man's name. She didn't let herself hate, but _that_ man was one human she violently disliked. If it hadn't been for _him_ , she'd have been able to clear herself with the Council. And he'd never, ever been anything but trouble for her, no matter how much her Master had once liked him. 

But then, he'd liked the Chancellor, too, so maybe that was proof she'd been right all along. "...I don't know that other name? Who's Daala?" 

"Admiral Natasi Daala, Tarkin's pet admiral… among other things. She is cut from the same cloth as he is, in all ways." Vader almost reached out to pet her montrals, as he would have when he'd still been Anakin, to soothe her temper.

That it was a woman revealed much. Xenophobia was rampant, but so was sexism, under the Empire. To rise as a woman would have taken guts, skill, and an arsenal of tricks, probably.

"Mmm. 'Other things', huh?" Ahsoka asked, moving a little closer to him at the flicker of steadying affection along the bond, the impression of his fingers stroking on a montral that sat in the surface of his mind. "Right, gotcha. Definite threat, tricky, and there's entirely too much chance they're going to link up. 

"And given Tarkin being his somehow charmingly slimy self, there's no doubt at least some of the Fleet personnel are pretending to have changed over so that they can get close enough to do damage. 

"Great. That's a nice basket of mynock hatchlings, isn't it?" 

A ripple of amusement greeted that assessment even as Vader took in her change of position. "One phrase for it, Ahsoka," he said, using her name with unconscious ease, even as he did raise his hand this time. When he settled it along one montral, he tried not to show hesitation, but his gloved touch had to be heavy; he had less sensitivity awareness than he'd had when he just had the one prosthetic.

She shouldn't want him touching her, but every time he reached out, every time he used her name, it was one more indication that whatever had been done to her Master to twist him into this being didn't have control of him anymore... and so she hummed quietly, shifting her weight a little to push against the heavy pressure of his gauntleted hand.

"I try and be creative," she said, deliberately cheerful, as she cast a sour look at the comm pads he had obviously been using, hoping to keep him distracted. "Can't imagine where I might've picked that up?" 

"You were always a strong learner," Vader praised her. "And resourceful on your own." He took care to not touch too forcefully, finding the motion to have its own worth, a familiar soothing for himself in the petting.

When had he begun to care about finding his own calm? When had it become necessary to react to other people as more than nuisances of necessity?

"Tell me of Padmé's daughter," he encouraged Ahsoka, eventually just letting his hand rest on her.

Ahsoka hummed, low in her throat, and considered where to even start. "She's a good hand with a bandage, but I think she's still a little wary of me, after watching that fight the other day. 

"She's gentle, kind... but resolute, too. And oh, boy, does she have a temper in under all that Senatorial calm!" 

Vader made a low, appreciative noise. "So did Padmé," he pointed out, knowing Ahsoka had heard at least one incident of the Senator chewing out his weaker self for some decision. "She will learn to trust you more explicitly in due time. Of this, I am positive."

"I hope so," Ahsoka answered, "and believe me, I remember the Senator's temper, too. Leia's got all the determination of _both_ of you. She's had a few playful moments, mostly with Winter... and she's got my Master's compassion for others. She's smart, too... if a little shiny." 

She was taking a risk, she knew, but why not? 

Vader frowned inside the mask, but he did not pull his hand from her. "Ahsoka, that man is dead," he insisted, but the firmness he'd used all these years was gone. He was not Palpatine's apprentice any longer, but he did not feel as if he could ever be Anakin Skywalker again either. "As to shiny, it is to be expected. She is young, new to her position, even if it is obvious she has been trained for this all her life."

Much as the clones had been trained for their positions all theirs.

"Maybe so," Ahsoka murmured, even as she shifted into his hand, moving a little closer to him. "And maybe that's for the best, for the future. But that doesn't mean I don't see him in her... or that I'm going to give up on _you_. 

"Her patience with us dancing around the topic of her parents is... getting pretty thin, though. She hadn't pushed, really, but there's been some pretty emphatic yelling about it." 

Vader moved so that he could open his side (vulnerable position, the armor had less reinforcement and circuitry along his lower ribs…) and shift his arm around her shoulders. It felt right to him, filling some need he had not been aware he had until the stubborn Togruta had pushed all of his expectations of life again, just by being herself.

"Then, once she is rested, send her to me. I will let her ask her questions." 

Ahsoka tucked herself into that opening, her arm sliding under his cloak to wrap behind him, her hand lightly on his far hip, just breathing for a moment. This wasn't her Skyguy, not entirely, maybe not even mostly... but he was a man trying to find a new way for himself, a man she still shared so much history with. 

And she knew just a little about trying to redefine yourself. She was surprised, but... that was probably the best response she could hope for. "Okay," she agreed, the rasp of his vocalizer aching a little in her montrals at this close a range, but it wasn't terrible. If it meant he would let himself have even this much contact, actually, it was pretty kriffing okay. "I will." 

She wasn't going to ask what he was planning to tell her, she wasn't. 

"You should likely be resting as well, Ahsoka," he admonished her. "You have been away from the Tower with her for long hours. You cannot defend Padmé's daughter if you are under-rested." 

It felt… right to have her there at his side. Maybe there were more than the absolutes of the Jedi or the Sith, with some path to carve from the middle. Perhaps he could finally have most of what he wanted, with his apprentice, and the child of the woman he had lost, in his life.

"I'm okay," Ahsoka replied, soft, leaning against him a little more, very carefully, as a smile broke across her lips at him fussing at her, using her name. "I'll probably curl up for a nap soon, but I wanted to come see how you were. 

"What are we going to do about this thing?" she asked, tapping gently at an edge of one control box. "I can hear it making noises it's not supposed to." 

Vader made a disagreeable noise. "I will have to go to the _Exactor_ in order to acquire all the parts I have stored. It is not as if there is anyone I can trust to machine and craft the parts I need here on the planet. Nor do I have the time, currently, to find who would be acceptable to make any of the redesigned versions.

"I cannot be out of reach as long as that will take anyway," he told her, knowing he yearned for it, and even thought that maybe, just maybe, he could trust her to guard him through the vulnerable period.

At least if she betrayed him, she would be merciful in the deathblow.

"...of course you have redesigned versions," she said, relieved to hear it -- and trying not to think about the fact that she had felt him considering death at her hands. Yes, she would kill him if she had to, to protect others... but it would never be like _that!_ What did he think she was, a Sith?! "Of _course_ you do. 

"But you need a manufacturer for it. Okay, so... one of the independent systems -- I'll look into who's good enough -- once we've got Coruscant to where we can leave it in safety for a while, yeah? And who designed this stupid thing anyway, it's pretty awful. 

"Very imposing, but awful." 

Vader found himself smiling, as he heard Ahsoka's usual impertinence and practical decision-making in those words, and felt her reject, so fully, the idea she would ever betray him like that.

Unlike Kenobi.

That took his smile away, but he kept Ahsoka near him. "The next recess of the Senate, you and I will go to my ship. I will allow Bail Organa to protect Leia while we are gone."

"What is it, m --" she cut off that last word determinedly. That wasn't her place anymore, and he sure as the pits _wasn't_ her Skyguy, but... he'd felt like him, amusement and satisfaction against her mind until it suddenly vanished in a flare of hatred and resentment. 

What had triggered that whipsawing, and how did she keep it from happening again? That rage was the bad one, the one that led to terrible things. "Okay. I'm sure he and the Noghri can take care of her for a little while." 

Vader heard that word in her mind, almost on her lips. Master. It still came to her so easily, like he'd given to… 

Too many Masters. All his life, he had been subjected to them, trading one set of chains for another, until now. Now, he was free, save for his dependence on the suit.

"No more your master… as much as a part of me desires to teach you more of my path, I will not ever be your master, Ahsoka," he informed her, serious in his need to make that promise. "We'll need a new name, once we can go craft the new suit." Vader was this monstrosity. Skywalker was the fallen hero. He could not be either, if he was to ever truly enjoy his new freedom.

She turned, staring the little distance up into the lenses of the mask, wishing she could see his eyes, something of his face, startled and torn between pleasure that he would say that, mean it... and hurt that he would set what they'd been aside. She focused on the pleasure, her mouth curving in a quick, broad smile that surely didn't show the ache in her throat and chest. "...okay," she agreed, holding on to his hip, wanting to wrap him up in the tightest hug she could. "Not about the Sith teachings thing, I'm _so_ not interested, but.... the rest of it. 

"...and for now... what about _ori'vod_?" 

He paused a long moment, turning it over in his mind. Just by virtue of using Mando'a, she was capturing something of who they had been. But the person he felt like he was now didn't really want to dismiss all of Skywalker anymore. Not when that included her, and Leia.

"I like it, _ner'vod_ ," he answered her. "There are teachings that would help you, Ahsoka. I have no wish to see you Fall, but not all of a Sith is about the Dark Side. Just as not all of a Jedi is the Light. There is power in emotion, power that can help you protect yourself and what you choose as your own."

She had to hug him, then, turning enough to wrap her other arm around him and hold on, burrowing her head in against one of the solid shoulder plates. Not so different than his old armor, really it wasn't... "Oh... oh, _ori'vod_ , I -- I -- " 

What had he done now? He didn't understand why she'd gone emotional at him again, but he awkwardly managed to get the embrace more comfortable for them both, wishing briefly that he could rest his face near her montrals. Only, the mask would hurt her, and that he could not do.

Could not?

"Ahsoka… I think you should go rest now," he said firmly, feeling besieged by too many impressions of his own changing. Had Palpatine truly kept him on such puppet strings that the last … decade and more, almost two, had been less who he was and more an elaborately staged hurricane of rage?

She nuzzled at him, keeping wrapped around the suit for a few more moments, before she nodded. "I... okay. I think you might be right... you know, for once," she added, though she said the last lightly and carefully teasing. 

That soft 'I have no wish to see you Fall' was turning around in her head, twisting and tumbling in her chest, and she _knew_ there was power in emotion. It just needed to be love, not hate. 

++++

Ahsoka gave a bleary look at Leia as the young woman came into the common room, having wound up napping on the floor in there. It was an old habit, one she still hadn't broken, of being at the point of entrance, and finding beds too soft.

" _Ori'vod_ … Vader, he said he would not mind your company today," she told the Senator. "Though you are up obscenely early for how much work you've been doing."

Leia blinked across at the other woman, seeing the sleep-fog in her eyes. That first word, what was it? She didn't recognize it, which wasn't surprising, given how many different languages there were even just among humans. If it was something Togrutan instead, she might never know. 

"Said he 'wouldn't mind' my company?" she asked, almost despite herself, the sarcasm coming easily to her lips despite how long she hadn't been awake. Or maybe because of. "I've been living right here for the last -- oh, however long it's been. As to up early, once I wake up, I'm up.

"But you should go back to sleep. You've had the nerve-wracking job." 

"I was up late," Ahsoka protested, but she was already curling back into her small ball, eyes closing. "Leia… he's trying," she added. "Becoming a monster is easy; undoing it, not so much."

Leia blinked at her, pausing and shaking her head a little. 'Becoming a monster is easy'? What? 

"It shouldn't be easy," she said, quiet, thinking about the being that had been the Emperor's boogeyman and enforcer for all of her life... but there was that 'undoing it' to think about, too. "All right. I'll go see him. Eriskand can take me. Sleep well." 

As she said it, the Noghri shifted into view, bowing to her. "Yes, _Mal'ary'ush_."

Ahsoka might have had better words if she hadn't been so tired, but she was asleep almost before Leia was out of earshot, claiming all the rest she could before they were catapulted back into the hotseat.

Eriskand took Leia up through the lift to his Lord's own quarters, where they were greeted in sibilant words by the Noghri on duty at that level. All of them breathed in the scent of the Mal'ary'ush, feeling a deep pride to be part of their Lord's new agenda surrounding her.

Vader stopped working on the new armored bracers and breastplate for Ahsoka, a project he had begun after seeing how poorly hers had fared in the battles, to look at Leia as she crossed into sight.

Her nose was Padmé's, and her bearing radiated that honed regality. She was small like her mother had been, deceptively delicate of build, yet, Vader knew she would prove to be blindingly strong.

The eyes, though, arrested his gaze. Once, those eyes -- hers were darker, shaded like her mother's, but the shape of them, the fire in them -- had looked out of a mirror at him.

"Lord Vader," she said, having easily found him. It was strange to see the two meters plus of Darth Vader standing behind a workbench. The powerful aura of menace that had surrounded him on their first meeting, and that first dinner, was... different, somehow, despite the unchanged cadence of the mechanical breathing. "Lady Tano said I would be welcome?" 

"Yes, you are, Leia," he told her. "I am given to understand that despite the press of politics, you have questions," he said bluntly, rather than dance around the real reason he'd extended the invitation. "Have you eaten? I can have the Noghri bring you a meal if you wish to sit in here, or we can move to the dining room."

"No," Leia admitted, startled at the blunt response, the question, and the offer alike. "I hadn't yet when Ahsoka told me, and I decided I could eat later." 

How exactly had her life become one where she could stand alone with Darth Vader and be discussing her breakfast choices? _Why_ had it? "You seem to always be offering to feed me. Why is that?" 

"Food is a basic necessity of life. Also, hospitality is a good tactic to practice with allies, neutrals, and enemies alike. It can lead to interesting revelations at times." Vader let his words taper off, then spoke to one of his Noghri, sending him for a breakfast plate to Leia's preferences. When he focused back on her, it was to continue. "There is also the fact that if I feed you while you are in my presence, I am assured you have eaten at least once that day."

"...and that matters to you," Leia murmured, shocked that one, Darth Vader would care even vaguely about hospitality, and two, that he cared if she had eaten. "But then, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, I seem to make _quite_ a difference in what you decide to do." 

"So you do," he agreed evenly, before turning back to his project. "Please make yourself comfortable. And decide which questions you most wish to ask." He could focus on the work and not see the ghost of his love (Anakin's love… and his) in this young woman, with her voice hitting just the same rhythm and intonations. That had to be a politician thing.

She moved to find herself a seat where she could at least somewhat see the face mask, unwilling to have a conversation with someone's back, even though Vader's back was slightly less intimidating than that mask. As she moved, she considered his phrasing intently. "That sounds almost as though you intend to limit how many I do ask, Lord Vader..." 

"That, Senator, depends on how much you choose to take your temper out in the asking," he told her with a deep awareness that she had every right to be angry… and that he still reacted to anger with hostility of his own. He would _not_ risk her to his temper, and would have her removed by the Noghri if he felt the situation deteriorate too much.

The memory of Padmé lying motionless, the acrid smell of the lava all around him came unbidden and most unwanted to his mind.

"Ah," she replied, considering that. She didn't think of herself as having a particularly sharp temper, not compared to her aunts... but she did know that she quickly resorted to sarcasm when she was upset. Winter certainly chided her about it often enough. "I suppose that's reasonable." 

She paused for a breath, received no answer, and looked sharply at the black, stylized armor that hid any reactions from her. He was apparently not going to make this even vaguely easy... well. Why should she be surprised at that? "All right, since we're being blunt this morning... Who were my biological parents?" 

That meant saying her name aloud, the full name, to someone who had never known her. That was the part that most bothered him, that nothing he could do would give her knowledge of Padmé that would make it real and immediate. Only a name, and his memories.

"Your mother was Padmé Naberrie-Skywalker, who ruled Naboo through two terms as Queen Amidala, and then served as the Senator from Chommell Sector through the end of the Clone Wars… and her death," Vader said slowly, waiting to see if she needed the name of her father, when he'd used Padmé's married name.

Her birth-mother had also been a queen? Wait, 'terms' as Queen? No, that wasn't important, something to ask Winter about later, differences in planetary customs. 'Chommell Sector', that was Mid, almost Outer Rim, and yes, Naboo was there, if she knew her maps at all. Also irrelevant, she scolded herself, aware that she was shying away from the other important thing in his words. 

'Skywalker'. _Skywalker_. 

Even with as badly destroyed as the records of the years just before her birth had been, Leia knew that surname. "Skywalker?" she asked, startled, "not... _Anakin_ Skywalker?" 

That was the name of one of the Jedi, who _were_ said to have been great warriors, among other things. Her father had said that one of her birth parents had been a warrior, the other a politician, and the politician had obviously been her mother. 

So she did know of the man he had once been. Should Vader just leave it at that, and let her have the solace of a hero and a guiding light as her birth parents?

"That was his name, yes," Vader told her, setting his tools down. "A forbidden marriage, as Jedi were not allowed such things as attachments. As if attachments were as easy to avoid as property and trinkets!" His anger filled that last. "Expected to be compassionate to all, serve every so-called noble cause of the Republic, and have nothing to show for it in the end, nor comfort against the demands that tore at every conscience!"

He needed to calm, feeling the sleepy presence of Ahsoka starting to rouse, and making her settle back to full rest helped him find his focus.

It was the careful way the tools left those lethal hands that warned Leia that she was about to hear something she wasn't going to want to... and then he was speaking, the amplified voice becoming sharper and more urgent -- no, not urgent, enraged -- with every phrase, every snarling condemnation. This mattered to him so deeply, so _personally _....__

__Sudden and impossible comprehension slammed into her heart without bothering to check in with her mind, and so she almost instantly started trying to reject the thought. No, she had to be reading too much into this, she had to. She could not be --_ _

__Trying to protect herself, her thoughts latched onto the last of that rant, the anger of his words against the -- rules, laws, customs? -- of the Jedi... "But how could anyone be expected to live like that? _Why_ would anyone ask it?" _ _

__He turned to fully face her, his mask as impassive as he was not. "I was never told a good answer for that, Leia. Always, to serve the Republic… never, to soothe the spirit and soul of those who gave _everything_ to that service." He paused to let her food be delivered then, using the time to bring his rage down further. "The Order was as wrong as the old Senate was corrupt. This is one thing of which I remain convinced."_ _

__...he said her name almost gently, despite the fury she could hear in his voice, almost taste in the air, and feel pressing against her like that menace he carried everywhere... but he was trying to control it. And he'd been worried about _her_ anger? Why? She shook her head slightly, smiled a thank-you to the Noghri who had brought her breakfast, and focused back on Vader -- somehow. _ _

__"But... my mother was a Senator?"_ _

__"Yes." The voice changed, and the tension in the air changed as well, becoming one of grief and quiet pride. "She knew first hand of the corruption, and would have devoutly fought it, save the war that she had tried so hard to avoid, and worked to bring to an end from the minute it was inevitable._ _

__"She was one of the bravest people I knew, with her heart and courage truly focused on the better of all."_ _

__That whipsaw flash from rage to grief, and the tone of his mechanical voice... they said, again, that her moment of sudden surety had been right, and this time she could not avoid facing it. The man that had been the Emperor's enforcer and lurking nightmare for her entire life seemed entirely certain that he was her biological father. "Then what in all the cold hells have you thought you've been doing, the last twenty years?"_ _

__He did not hesitate to answer her. "Living with the choices I made to try and save my wife and child. Living under the lie that _I_ personally had killed her, and the unborn child, in my rage. Living as a man who had nothing left but the hatred inside my heart, and chains forged by two men who had once called themselves my friend."_ _

__It was that there were no apologies, no excuses, nothing but the even, final, almost flat answer that convinced Leia that he was telling her the absolute truth as he saw it. How much of it was objectively true, that might be a different question... but right now she was dealing with the man in front of her. "Who... no, never mind._ _

__"The Emperor told you you'd killed... us. My mother and -- and me."_ _

__He nodded slowly. "When the only reason he had held any power of me was a promise to me, to save the woman I loved and our child," Vader said. "I told the Jedi Council I had found the Sith… And then it all went sideways, Leia. I'm still trying to sort out my true memories from the haze of influence he held over me._ _

__"Not that I will hide behind that as an excuse," he said, almost defiantly, the voice ringing with the conviction of a man who would not shift blame._ _

__She shook her head, slowly, her eyes trying, vainly, to pick up any hint of expression in that motionless mask. She could not imagine believing any promise the Emperor made...his mauled visage and the awful aura of malice and pain that had hung around him was warning enough against _that_. But... "He'd been... a friend?" she asked, even as the ring of that last half-snapped sentence kept rattling around in her head. "Or you thought he was." _ _

__"He was the only person on this entire planet that seemed willing to make time for an ex-slave brought into a life of servitude of a different kind. Yes, I thought he was a friend." Vader laid out the truth plainly, from his perspective. "Even the man initially responsible for me listened only a tenth as much as the Chancellor did… the busiest man on the planet, who was always available to me."_ _

__She shook her head slightly, rocked by those words more than she knew what to do with, stunned at the implications. An ex-slave? She had hated even the concept of slavery from the time she was old enough to understand what the word meant, it was wrong, obscene, that the Empire practiced it on such wide scale was appalling... and the man that had hammered the Empire into shape had once been one himself?_ _

__How could he let it happen to so many other people, so many other worlds, then? "There's so much I don't understand, don't have the background _to_ understand... but that's... awful."_ _

__"You sound like _her_ , or even my mother," Vader said in as soft a voice as he could get with his equipment. "Eat." He picked his tools up to work a bit longer on the equipment for Ahsoka, seeing if she would understand the command was to give them both time to settle from the high emotions._ _

__His mother?_ _

__That was something she'd never even contemplated. That Darth Vader -- Anakin Skywalker, oh, saints -- had had a mother, had been a child. Without replying to those soft words, she reached for her utensils to go back to eating the breakfast he'd had brought for her._ _

__After several bites, and a long drink of the juice, she asked, "That's a good thing, right?"_ _

__"Yes." A bit of dry humor touched the words he used next. "Please do endeavor to be like either woman."_ _

__She wouldn't have thought he had a sense of humor... but that was definitely humor, and, she thought, something of a request for her to _not_ be like him. Well _that_ wouldn't be hard! She didn't say it, merely going back to her plate._ _


End file.
